IDC and Gartner data proves big, big switch to Mac

That bounce in Mac sales spotted by Canalys? Seems it’s a trend, as IDC and Gartner analysts echo the news with Apple experiencing 20.8% growth – far above the industry average 3 percent. (Or 13.1% growth on Gartner’s data).

Apple continues to grow faster than the industry

IDC’s latest PC market tracker observes the PC market experiencing its second quarter of growth after seven consecutive quarters of decline. IDC estimate 64.9 million PCs shipped, up 3% – partly as the hype around AI PCs (and the sullen silence around the likely environmental impact of these) makes computers sexy again. Apple grabbed 8.8% of those PC sales (or 5.7 million units) in Q2 24.

Clearly the recent MacBook Air refresh has cast some special magic. Given how great a Mac it was when I looked at it, that’s not a huge surprise.

“Two consecutive quarters of growth, combined with plenty of market hype around AI PCs and a less sexy but arguably more important commercial refresh cycle, seems to be what the PC market needed. The buzz is clearly around AI, but a lot is happening with non-AI PC purchasing to make this mature market show signs of positivity,” said IDC’s Ryan Reith.

Apple is now the globe’s fourth place vendor, according to the analysts. Up in front you’ll find Dell (10.1m shipments), HP (13.7m), and Lenovo (14.7m), so the company still has a pretty long way to go to eclipse those players. All the same, at 20.8% growth Apple’s ascendancy still seems to have plenty of scope.

Gartner’s data seems to bear this out, pitching Apple at 5.4m sales for 9% market share and 13.1% growth – once again, far above the industry average.

That growth was also echoed in the US, where analyst Mikako Kitagawa said: “Two consecutive quarters of growth, combined with plenty of market hype around AI PCs and a less sexy but arguably more important commercial refresh cycle, seems to be what the PC market needed. The buzz is clearly around AI, but a lot is happening with non-AI PC purchasing to make this mature market show signs of positivity.”

But in reality the windows are opening

But the data also seemingly goes to show that given the need to upgrade from Windows 10, a good chunk of users are swerving Windows 11 to opt for Mac. That’s a movement really visible in the enterprise, and one that echoes what Apple has reported in terms of “new to Mac” sales in recent quarters. “Our Mac installed base reached an all-time high with half of our MacBook Air buyers during the quarter being new to Mac. Also customer satisfaction for Mac was recently reported at 96% in the U.S.,” said Apple CFO, Luca Maestri, during a recent fiscal call.

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